1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hair iron. More particularly, the present invention relates to a hair iron having a modified heating plate.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a hair iron includes an upper body and a lower body which are coupled to each other by a hinge section. Heaters are installed in the upper and lower bodies and heating plates are provided in the vicinity of the heaters.
The hair iron having the above structure usually maintains an open state due to an elastic member, such as a spring, installed in the hinge section, so a user must press handle sections of the upper and lower bodies using a hand in use. That is, the user operates the heaters installed in the upper and lower bodies to heat the heating plates, and then manipulates the heating plates after putting the hair between the heating plates to obtain a desired hair style.
Such a hair iron is used to change straight hair to curly hair, or vice versa. In addition, the user can make a desired hair style within a short period of time using the hair iron. Thus, the hair iron is extensively used in hair shops as well as in the home.
One of the hair designs obtainable by using a hair iron is a curly hair design. In curly hair designs, hair is dressed in a straight manner, and then a tip portion of the straight hair is curled inward.
However, in order to form curly hair, a user or a hair designer must twist a wrist at the tip portion of the hair while pulling the hair in a straight direction using the hair iron. For this reason, damage may be caused to the wrist of the user or the hair designer when forming curly hair using the hair iron. If an ordinary person performs hairdressing using a hair iron to form curly hair, damage applied to the muscle of the wrist or shoulder may not be severe. However, in the case of hair designers who perform curly hairdressing several times in a day, severe damage may be caused to the muscle of the wrist or shoulder.
FIG. 1 is a view illustrating a conventional hair iron in use. As shown in FIG. 1, if a hair designer pulls the hair iron 10 toward a body of the hair designer in a state in which hair of a customer is put in the hair iron 10, the wrist of the hair designer is bent by a predetermined angle θa, so that damage may be caused to the wrist as well as the shoulder of the hair designer. In order to avoid such damage, the hair designer performs curly hairdressing while directing the hair iron in a downward direction as much as possible. However, in this case, the hair designer must bend his or her body during curly hairdressing, causing other damage (such as lumbago).
Meanwhile, in order to obtain curly hair, the user or the hair designer must put hair in the hair iron and then inwardly bend the tip portion of the hair by using an edge of the heating plate. However, the edge of the heating plate employed in the conventional hair iron has an angular configuration, so that damage may be caused to the hair.
Recently, customer demand for healthy hair has increased, so a dryer using a far-infrared rays has been proposed. However, a hair iron using far-infrared rays has not been proposed. The hair directly makes contact with the heating plate in the hair iron, so the far-infrared rays must be emitted from the heating plate. However, since the heating plate generates high-temperature heat, it is difficult to install a far-infrared ray device in the heating plate.
The present invention has been made to solve the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a hair iron in which a surface of a heating plate making contact with hair is inclined by a predetermined angle relative to a horizontal plane of a handle, and a far-infrared ray device is installed on the surface of the heating plate.
In order to accomplish the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a hair iron including an upper body and a lower body coupled with the upper body by a hinge section. Each of the upper and lower bodies includes a handle formed at one end thereof with the hinge section, a supporter extending from the handle, and a heating plate attached to the supporter and provided with a far-infrared ray device that emits far-infrared rays. A horizontal plane of the heating plate is inclined relative to a horizontal plane of the handle by a predetermined angle.
According to the present invention, the surface of the heating plate making contact with the hair is inclined by a predetermined angle relative to the horizontal plane of the handle, so that users can easily perform hairdressing without excessively bending the wrist or shoulder. Thus, damage caused to the muscle or bone of users can be attenuated.
In addition, according to the present invention, the edge of the heating plate is rounded, so that hair can be prevented from being damaged by the edge of the heating plate.
Further, since the far-infrared ray device is installed on the surface of the heating plate, users can obtain healthy hair.